Our not for profit care homes provide a high standard of care, have 5* food hygiene and are pet friendly.
Our care homes
Here are some more areas we know are important to think about when choosing a care home:
Activities - Sunny moments club
Making memories and creating special sunny moments is something we love to do.
We are passionate about creating moments with our residents that will brighten their day – we call this our sunny moments club.
We spend time getting to know you and create an ever-changing programme full of activities and fun things to do, giving you the chance to do what you love best, or explore new experiences or talents. Sunny moments are created with our dedicated activities co-ordinator and can involve individual or group activities, friends, family and the local community.
We arrange everything from crafts, quizzes and armchair aerobics to food tasting, movie afternoons and community choirs – just to name a few. Sometimes sunny moments are those moments we take to relax and reflect. We have quieter times to chat with a friend, share our most vivid memories or perhaps enjoy a stroll around the garden.
Sporting moments are sunny moments – there really is something for everyone. You can enjoy cheerleading, ball games, hoopla, indoor golf or simply reminiscing about your favourite sport!
When you wish upon a star
Most of our care homes have a wish tree and it’s a special sunny moment when we make a wish come true. We love it when our residents dream big and we get to see their face light up when their wish is our command.
Here's a sample activities menu for the morning and afternoon:
Monday - Skittles and flower arranging
Tuesday - Tapas tasting and Alive and Active exercise
Wednesday - Live violin performance and arts and crafts
Thursday - Hoopla and pamper parlour
Friday - Bulb planting and quiz time
Saturday - Saturday smoothies and scrabble club
Sunday - sing along and movie and nibbles
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Shaw
Fresh home cooked food
We know that meal times bring sunshine and are an important part of your day. We take great pride in offering a seasonal daily menu which has a selection of delicious, nutritionally balanced meals.
Take your pick and choose on the day what you fancy from the menu. Our trained chefs cook scrumptious dishes on site in our 5* hygiene rated kitchen, using fresh ingredients.
If you have dietary requirements or personal preferences, that’s no problem! Top yourself up throughout the day with tea, coffee, juice, homemade cake, biscuits and fruit. There’s not much that beats settling down with a nice cup of tea and homemade cake whilst chatting with friends in an afternoon.
Have your say and join regular meetings with our Chef Manager to give your feedback on dishes and share your suggestions for the menu. Here’s what some residents had to say:
“Full marks to the kitchen for getting to know people’s likes and dislikes!”
“My breakfast here is perfect, it’s exactly what I like.”
“I have a small appetite and have a small plate, but sometimes there’s not enough space so I’d like a small portion on a bigger plate please.”
Here's a sample menu:
Breakfast
Selection of cereals or porridge, mixed fruits, toast and tea, coffee, hot chocolate.
Lunch
Roast beef and yorkshire pudding
Roasted vegetable tart
Pear tart tatin
Chocolate organde cheesecake
Supper
Ham and cheese croissant
Homemade carrot and corriander soup
Lemon syllabub
Creme caramel
Your room
If you or your loved one decide to make a permanent move into one of our care homes you will have your own room. We encourage residents to personalise their room with their own belongings so they can create a homely feel and make it their own.
For example, you can bring your own bed, furniture, chairs, pictures and television. The majority of our rooms are en-suite and we also have a few double rooms which can accommodate two people.
Each room has a telephone connection so residents can have their own landline number and wi-fi. We also have guest wi-fi access throughout our care homes. Every room has a television aerial and an emergency call system in the bedroom and bathroom. We also offer residents a pendant to wear which is linked to the call system.
We're better together
We have a ‘Better Together’ programme.
Engaging and involving our residents is important to us. We constantly seek ideas, feedback and suggestions from our residents and their family in order to continuiously improve our service. Here are some of the ways we gain feedback:
Resident meeting - Residents meet regularly with our care home manager, they share feedback, staff updates and plan events.
Catering meeting - Our Chef Manager arranges catering meetings so you can give feedback about our dishes and recipes, and make suggestions for the menu.
Resident satisfaction survey - Every year we formally ask residents for their feedback in a questionnaire. This is anonymous feedback about all areas of our service.
Relative satisfaction survey - It’s important that your relatives or close friends have the opportunity to share their feedback too so we share a questionnaire with them every year.
Keeping our care homes safe
Keeping our residents, employees and properties safe is a priority.
Access - We have a door entry system at all of our care homes, this means that staff speak to anyone before they enter the building. Visitors should always sign in and residents have a in/out board to use. The doors are opened using a door release code and the nurse call system will alert staff when any other external door has been opened. We encourage our residents to live independently and have access to our lovely gardens, however, we monitor this access to make sure it is appriopriate.
Safeguarding - All of our employees complete a safeguarding training course to make sure our residents, who can be velnerable, are treated with respect and not abused or neglected. We are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and work closely with our local partners. All of our care home employees have manditory training and a DBS check when they start employment with us.
Health and safety - We carry out regular health and safety checks in our care homes to make sure our property is safe, risks are reduced and our equipment is in good working order.
Fire safety checks include for example:
- Weekly fire alarm testing.
- Monthly checks of; fire extingushers, fire doors, electrical items and cleaning smoke detectors and completing a fire drill.
- Quarterly fire risk assessments and fire risk audits are carried out.
- Every year we have our electircal equipment PAT tested.
Health and safety checks include for example:
- Visual inspections.
- Hoist and sling inspections.
- Hot water temperature testing.
- Internal and external environmental checks.
- Condition of garden furniture assessments.
- Legionella tests.
- Emergency lighting and nurse call system.
- Checking first aid boxes, window restrictors and wheelchairs.
We are pet friendly
We are very proud to have received a platinum award from the RSPCA for our pet friendly policy and we embrace the difference pets can make to our residents.
We are in our fifth consecutive year of winning a Housing Footprints award. This accolade shows that the RSPCA recognise our approach to promoting responsible pet ownership and how we acknowledge the positive difference animals can make to our residents. We have 109 pets living among our 800 residents, the majority of which live with residents who occupy our rented sheltered housing and leasehold properties.
We have pet policy which is available for you to read.Pet Policy v2 2020[pdf] 270KB
"I had just lost my husband when I needed to move home so it was really important for me to find a housing association that was dog friendly so I could bring Lizzie, my west highland terrier, with me. I couldn’t bear to lose another member of my family.
Having Lizzie gives me a purpose to life, I go out walking with her everyday which helps me to keep physically and mentally fit. It means I have something in common with other residents and we have a good chat. Sussex Housing & Care’s pet policy is clear and I know my responsibilities as a pet owner.”
Resident from Nevill Court, Crowborough.
We are not for profit
We are a not for profit housing association. This means we make a surplus each year which we reinvest back into the organisation in order to continiously improve our properties and the quality of life of our residents, and to achieve our mission to help people live later life to the full.